JUDGE DREDD

The first signature which I wrote for my MSN email account years ago, was “Rob Schneider In “Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb”. This was a quote from a South Park episode, “The Biggest Doush In The Universe” as Schneider was the butt of the joke. His appearance here, as the comic relief for the infamous Judge Dredd, didn’t help.

In 1977, Judge Dredd first appeared in the 2000AD comics, as the hardest judge of Megalopolis. Here, Silvester Stallone takes the role as the helmeted law-enforcer, but after he is framed for murder and goes on the run, we lose the helmet and Danny Cannon, the director, lost control of the plot.

It’s fun, action packed and more enjoyable than people are willing to admit. It’s a guilty pleasure but I’m not a fan of the comic or Dredd so I had noting to lose here. If I was, I would no doubt be fuming. This is not the real Judge Dredd, this is Demolition Man with better effects.

The effects are good for the day, though whimsical and stupid at the same time, particularly the flying bike chase thing. It just looks cheap and makes little sense, whilst the cloning scene at then end, looks much better as the larger robots get involved.

Stallone’s ego simply gets in the way a point made more obvious by the amount of time that he doesn’t wear the mask. And then there’s Schneider’s comic relief, which left me needing pain relief itself. But it was a film of the time, playing down to it’s perceived stupid audience, which obviously wasn’t the case.

Enjoy as a late night popcorn film, but don’t take it as a serious adaptation. It’s not as bad as fans would make out either.